The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I.Cibber, Theophilus
General
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
A younger son of Edwin, Archbishop of York, was born at Bishops Thorp
in that county, and as a member of St. Mary's Hall, was matriculated
in the university in the beginning of December 1589; how long he
remained at the university Wood is not able to determine. In the year
1610 he began a long journey, and after he had travelled through
several parts of Europe, he visited many cities, especially
Constantinople, and countries under the Turkish empire, as Greece,
Egypt, and the Holy Land[1]. Afterwards he took a view of the remote
parts of Italy, and the Islands adjoining: Then he went to Rome; the
antiquities of that place were shewn him by Nicholas Fitzherbert,
once an Oxford student, and who had the honour of Mr. Sandys's
acquaintance. Thence our author went to Venice, and from that returned
to England, where digesting his notes, he published his travels.
Sandys, who appears to have been a man of excellent parts, of a pious
and generous disposition, did not, like too many travellers, turn his
attention upon the modes of dress, and the fashions of the several
courts which is but a poor acquisition; but he studied the genius, the
tempers, the religion, and the governing principles of the people he
visited, as much as his time amongst them would permit. He returned
in 1612, being improved, says Wood, 'in several respects, by this his
'large journey, being an accomplished gentleman, as being master of
several languages, of affluent and ready discourse, and excellent
comportment.' He had also a poetical fancy, and a zealous inclination
to all literature, which made his company acceptable to the most
virtuous men, and scholars of his time. He also wrote a Paraphrase on
the Psalms of David, and upon the Hymns dispersed throughout the Old
and New Testament, London, 1636, reprinted there in folio 1638, with
other things under this title.
Paraphrase on the Divine Poems, on Job, Psalms of David, Ecclesiastes,
Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Songs collected out of the Old and New
Testament. This Paraphrase on David's Psalms was one of the books that
Charles I. delighted so much to read in: as he did in Herbert's Divine
Poems, Dr. Hammond's Works, and Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, while
he was a prisoner in the Isle of Wight[2].
Paraphrase on the Divine Poems, viz. on the Psalms of David, on
Ecclesiastes, and on the Song of Solomon, London, 1637. Some, if not
all of the Psalms of David, had vocal compositions set to them by
William and Henry Lawes, with a thorough bass, for an Organ, in four
large books or volumes in 4to. Our author also translated into English
Ovid's Metamorphoses, London, 1627. Virgil's first book of Æneis
printed with the former. Mr. Dryden in his preface to some of his
translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses, calls him the best versifier of
the last age.
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